Napoleon

French history | Flawed Sparkler. A new biography paints Napoleon as a tactical military genius. But he made some serious strategic mistakes and was far from being a brilliant statesman. Economist, Sept 20, 2014www.economist.com/news/books-and ... e-made-some-serious
(book review on Andrew Roberts, Napoleon the Great. Allen Lane/Viking, 2014)

Note:
(a) The book author visited "even Longwood on St Helena, where Napoleon died at just 51."

, which was named after Longwood, West Yorkshire
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwood,_West_Yorkshire
(The name Longwood derives from Old English Lang wudu, meaning "The Long Wood")

(b) "it was his revolutionising of warfare, military supplies, logistics and the use of artillery and tactics, especially in such battles as Austerlitz in 1805 and Friedland in 1807, that stands out. * * * he should really have won Waterloo in 1815."
(i) Battle of Austerlitz
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Austerlitz
(Dec 2, 1805; near Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire (present day Czech Republic; decisively defeated a Russo-Austrian army, commanded by Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II)
(ii) Battle of Friedland
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Friedland
(June 14, 1807; decisively defeat Count von Bennigsen's Russian army about twenty-seven miles (43 km) southeast of Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad, Russia)

(c) In invading Russia in 1812, Napoleon underestimated "the skill of such generals as Barclay de Tolly and the fighting quality of Russian troops"

Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly
(1761 – 1818; a member of the Scottish Clan Barclay but born in Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and raised in Russia (present-day Lithuania and Estonia, respectively); entered the Imperial Russian Army at an early age; section 3 Napoleon's invasion: His illness made itself known at that time and he was forced to leave the army soon afterwards)

I search the Web extensively, but nothing said he had an "illness," not to mention what it was.

(d) "He [Napoleon] was also hopeless when it came to sea power. * * * In many ways the decisive battle of his wars was not Austerlitz or even Waterloo but Trafalgar in 1805 * * * It was Trafalgar that finally killed French hopes of invading England and cut Europe off from burgeoning world trade [because Britain controlled the seas]. As a consequence the British economy continued to grow strongly, while (thanks in part to Napoleon’s atavistic protectionism) even by 1815 France had barely reached Britain’s level of industrialisation in 1780."

(e) "He certainly did much to reform France and Europe, not least through what became the Napoleonic legal code. Yet he * * * instigated the Brumaire coup in 1799 * * * and was guilty of such crimes as the kidnap and murder of the Duc d’Enghien."
(i) Napoleonic Code
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Code
(the official name being the Code civil des Français; 1804)
(ii) Coup of 18 Brumaire
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_of_18_Brumaire
(Nov 9, 1799, which was 18 Brumaire [qv], Year VIII under the French Republican Calendar)
(iii) Duc d’Enghien
(A) For Duc d’Enghien, see Duke of Enghien
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Enghien
(B) Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Antoine,_Duke_of_Enghien(1772 – 1804)

(f) "Perhaps worst of all was Napoleon’s habit of indulging and promoting his own family, especially his brothers": Joseph, Louis and Jerome.

(g) "He [Napoleon] clearly promoted modernisation in Europe through such abruptly unceremonious acts as the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire and of the doge in Venice."
(i) Holy Roman Empire
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire
(962-1806; section 2.6.2 French Revolutionary Wars and final dissolution)
(ii)
(A) doge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge
(B) Ludovico Manin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovico_Manin
(1725-1802; he last Doge of Venice; governed Venice from 1789 until 1797, when he was forced to abdicate by Napoleon Bonaparte)